UK Hacker Gary McKinnon is
set for extradition to the United States, after a last-resort appellate
committee at the UK’s House of Lords denied his attempts to appeal Wednesday.
He is now taking his case to the European Court on Human Rights in Strasbourg,
France.

McKinnon is wanted in the United States for allegedly
hacking into Pentagon and military computers between 2001 and 2002, where
it is claimed he was searching for evidence of a UFO cover-up by the U.S.
government. As a byproduct of his escapades, U.S. authorities accuse
McKinnon of tampering with military log files – some of which were used to
assess the battle readiness of U.S. Navy ships – and deleting critical
information which, in one case, knocked more than 2000 U.S. Army computers
offline in Washington, DC.

In one case, McKinnon even left authorities a calling card in the form of a
note, which read:

“US foreign policy is akin to
government-sponsored terrorism these days ... It was not a mistake that there
was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year ... I am SOLO. I will
continue to disrupt at the highest levels...”

The Law
Lords’ opinion of USA v. McKinnon notes that McKinnon “admitted
responsibility” to his crimes with UK authorities after his arrest in 2002, and
evidence mounting against him across the pond indicates that he has little
chance of walking away with a not-guilty plea in the United States. To that
end, U.S. authorities offered McKinnon a plea deal: if McKinnon plead guilty
and came to the United States willingly, he’d endure a lenient, 6-12 month
sentence at a minimum security prison in the U.S., followed by repatriation to
the UK and most likely supervised or paroled release.

McKinnon has repeatedly turned down this offer, however, and instead spent
the last six years fighting the U.S. government’s extradition request. The
sentence he now faces is decidedly more severe: at least 8-10 years in a
medium- or high-security U.S. prison, and have little opportunity for parole or
repatriation to the UK.

In his defense, McKinnon said the U.S. plea-bargaining process – a technique
foreign to UK courts – was a violation of his human rights: the only way to
seek punishment in his own country, he argued, was to give in to the U.S.
plea-bargain and surrender willingly – a process that would have him
automatically admitting guilt and, according to his supporters, opting out of a
fair trial.

McKinnon’s defense has also expressed fears of special-category,
Guantanamo-style military treatment, should he be extradited to the United
States.

His supporters note that the Law Lords’ opinion, agreed on unanimously by
the court, was written by ex-Intelligence Services Commissioner Lord Brown of
Eaton-under-Haywood, automatically slanting his opinion in favor a cultural
“partnership” mentality with the U.S.

Comments

Threshold

Username

Password

remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

There is a lot of anti-US sentiment in other parts of the world. Now, I don't know the full details of what happened when he accessed the US computers BUT I doubt you do either. Even if he did bring down US computers, which I'm not saying he did, it would be extremely stupid of him to admit to it outside of a court of law and against his best interest. Heck, Michael Vick said he didn't know about the dog fights at his house until he got into court. We all know how that went.

I know there has been rantings from some people in forums about a lifetime sentence and buttf**cking but the truth is that having known someone who did about 10 years, that doesn't go on much and only for those who consent. This is a guy who was a drug dealer and abuser. The popularity of the term is due to the fact that most of these people are criminals and they deserve punishment, a popular idea with many, and the fact that TV shows and movies perpetuate the huge burly cell mate who is going to make you his girlfriend bit.

As for the life in prison, most of us here aren't idiots however most people who come to DailyTech are likely from the US. Regardless, it is wrong for that guy to hack into computers, get caught and now try to escape from doing time. Hence all the jokes and stuff about throwing him into prison for life. 99% of the people do not realistically expect him to be thrown in prison for life without his day in court similar to Sean Connery in The Rock. Even Saddam Hussein got his day in court and no one believes his innocence. Anyone outside of the US who seriously believes the US will throw this guy into prison for the rest of his life is an idiot. If he had hacked into US government computers looking for information to sell to others, now we're talking lifetime imprisonment regardless of nationality.

For the record, I was not born in the US but I am a citizen. I see points of views outside of those who have lived solely as a US citizen and have never traveled abroad. I still think this guy should get his rear end in the slammer. If he was hacking into UK computers, he'd get much much more than a plea bargain for 6 months in a minimum security prison with all the evidence they have on him. If he was a US citizen hacking into US computers he'd get much more than 6 months in prison.

The sentence he was being offered was more than fair IMHO. He also had every right to defend himself in a court of law and either dispute the charges or at least say that his crimes were not as serious as those he was being charged with.

With a 6 month sentence in a minimum security prison, where you can basically do whatever you want outside of following a few basic rules, it was basically a slap on the wrist comparatively speaking. The reason he is going to get a heavier sentence of up to 10 years in a stiffer prison is because he refused the offer that was given in the plea bargain. I am someone who got caught doing something stupid in my youth that could have netted me up to two years in prison. They gave me a plea bargain, which I accepted, of 6 months probation and expunging my record if I didn't do anything else stupid and complete my court ordered 6 months of probation (it was non reporting, so you'd have to be an idiot to not complete it). Had I refused it, I likely would have done two years time in prison due to the evidence against me. I did have the option to refuse the plea bargain and fight the charges in court. This guy refused the plea bargain and he is now reaping what he sowed. I seriously do not see how his human rights were violated anywhere. He has always had the opportunity to come to the US to fight the charges. Which he knows he will lose because they caught him red handed. Whether it was his own stupidity that got him caught is irrelevant.

The EU courts will not stop the extradition because when he is sent to the US he still has a chance to argue his case in court. Again, with the amount of evidence on this idiot's rear end, fat chance of winning that one. He knows it, the world knows it, only anti-US people are arguing in his favor and booing the US in this case. I'd guarantee that if it was a US citizen hacking into UK (or pick almost any foreign nationality) computers most of you supporting this guy would have called for the beheading of the US hacker if he fought extradition to the UK. I do believe in extraditing US citizens to a foreign country if they committed similar crimes btw, so long as there is no death penalty in play.

"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA